Pro bono marketer helps bring affordable therapies to Thamesmead

Most health practitioners recognise that there are many non-medical treatments that can support a person’s health and well-being including message, reflexology and aromatherapy. These non-medical services, which can be used alongside conventional medical treatment, are often called complementary therapies and are a valuable way to treat health issues ranging from aches and pains to mental health issues, like depression and anxiety. And organisations such as Cancer Research recognise that they can also play an important role in helping people to cope better with the symptoms caused by cancer or the side effects caused by cancer treatments.

After many years as a massage and nutrition therapist Sandy Trott understands that regular access to these treatments is an important way to keep a community healthy and happy. People in many communities however are not typically affluent enough to access these services, which is why in 2006 she founded the Feel Good Co-operative to make affordable complementary therapy treatments available to the Thamesmead community.

The Feel Good Co-operative is a non-profit, volunteer run organisation, which offers treatments including massage, reflexology and aromatherapy for very reasonable rates. They make sure that complementary therapies are available to people who would not otherwise be able to afford them.

Paula Cave-Ayland, director of the Feel Good Co-op, said, ‘We’re a community group composed of complementary therapists offering affordable therapies in the Thamesmead area of Greenwich and Bexley. We have work bases in three health centres and a sports centre. Thamesmead is a deprived area and most people living there cannot afford commercial rates for such treatments, which is why our founder, Sandy, felt there was a need for creating the Feel Good Co-op here.’

Paula signed up to Pimp My Cause because although there are many people in their area in need of their services, most of them were unaware of the Co-op’s existence. Jermaine Ranger, an experienced marketer who has contributed his skills to many causes through Pimp My Cause, offered to support their work and to help the Feel Good Co-op to more effectively market their services.

Sandy, founder of the Feel Good Co-op said, ‘Jermaine is a great asset to our organisation. He has shown patience with me and my lack of IT understanding. And his skills dealing with marketing and IT issues have been invaluable so far. I look forward to continuing our relationship with him for a very long time.

‘He totally re-vamped our outdated, static website, making it more interactive for people to find information about us easily; also adding a contact field that enables any potential clients to contact us directly. This is a very useful addition that has generated more clientele. He also helps with twitter feeds, Facebook entries and anything else that he can to help market our organisation. This has freed up our volunteers, who are nowhere near as skilled as he is with anything marketing and IT related. His guidance in raising our profile is greatly appreciated.’

Jermaine shared his experience of working with the Feel Good team, ‘Having done work with a health related organisation in Kent some years ago, I instantly knew this was a project that I could make a difference to.

‘After an initial meeting with Paula and Kate, it took me a matter of weeks to draft a marketing strategy, draw up plans for their digital marketing activities and to deliver a social media workshop to their team of volunteers. And after meeting with their founder, Sandy, I came up with ideas for how their new website should look and feel. I migrated their website over to the WordPress.org platform, so that I could make the needed improvements. The result is a Feel Good Co-op website that is responsive, complete with online booking form, a clearer call to action and new blog posts.

‘And like most of the causes I’ve worked with, the Feel Good Co-op will have my continued support.’

If you would like to join the team and because a brand ambassador for the Feel Good Co-op or to support their fundraising work please get in touch with me at anna@pimpmycause.org.